Self-ordered cellulose nanocrystals and microscopic investigations

Abstract

Cellulose nanocrystals were extracted from cotton. The cellulose nanocrystals made a self-assembly structure when dried under slow conditions, as it was revealed by the characterization made to the material. The AFM images of the nanocrystals showed that they had a changing local orientation, pointing in a preferred direction that underwent a periodic change. This periodic change resembles the orientation of a chiral nematic phase. The TEM images showed that the nanocrystals had a rod-like appearance with average length size of 98.5 nm and a diameter of 4.7 nm. The TEM characterization showed the nanocrystals with more details than AFM. In this paper, the self-assembling of CNC was observed by AFM, and further investigations were done by TEM, deconvoluting the process of CNC nanorods aggregation.